Notes: Thanks to Mari and Sammy for their squeal-inducing feedback. You're the best, ladies!
Readers and REAL McRollers - Thank you for your amazing support! It is always appreciated.
Hope you enjoy!
Another Stormy Night (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)
CRACK! A thunderclap woke both Steve and Catherine in the middle of the night. Steve reached for the bedside lamp as they waited to see if the storm disturbed the sleep of either of the kids. A couple of tell tale creaks in the floor told them it had.
"Good call, Siri," Steve said, smoothing down the tank he had worn to bed.
"Is it weird we check the weather app before bed?" Catherine asked, sitting up.
"Plenty of people check the weather app to figure out what to wear."
"Yeah, what to wear outside. But to bed?"
He shrugged. "If they're parents, they do."
CRAAAAAAAACK! A bolt of lightning lit up the room momentarily followed by an even louder thunderclap. They heard two doors open and feet quickly pad down the hall.
Catherine was already up and opening the door before they could knock. In the doorway stood Angie and DJ holding hands and looking up at their parents. She smiled. "Come on in."
DJ ran to Steve's side of the bed and climbed on while Angie lifted her arms for Catherine to pick her up. All four settled into the bed, arranging the pillows against the headboard.
"So," Steve began, "thunder is caused by …" He let his voice trail off and looked at DJ.
"The movement of the air as the super hot lightning heats it up," DJ replied.
Steve nodded proudly. "Exactly right."
"Lightning is hotter than da sun," Angie added, leaning against Catherine.
"Yes, it is," Catherine confirmed, stroking her hair.
"And how do we tell how far away the lightning is?" Steve continued.
"We wait for a flash of lightning …" DJ began.
A moment later the room lit up.
"An' we count!" Angie said. She and her brother looked at each other and counted together.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, te–"
Before they could finish, the thunder rumbled.
"Almost ten seconds," DJ said. "And we divide by five." He nodded to Angie who counted to five and DJ held up one finger. She kept counting till she reached ten and DJ held up another finger. "Almost 2 miles away," he said.
"You got it," Steve said with a smile. "Good teamwork."
Angie beamed.
"It does help to know what thunder and lightning is," DJ said. "But it's still loud and a little scary."
Catherine smiled softly and nodded over to the corner. "You're not the only one who thinks so." They looked over to see Pumpkin, who had darted into the room along with the kids, snuggled close to Cammie in the dog's bed.
"Aww, Pun'kin's a little scared," Angie said.
"Was Cammie ever afraid of thunderstorms?" DJ asked.
"We thought she might be," Catherine said. "A lot of dogs are. So when the first storm came after she came to live with us we were all ready to comfort her, but she wasn't afraid."
DJ beamed. "Cause she's the bravest dog in the world."
Steve grinned. "That's right."
"And luckily she loves hugs and kisses anyway, or I might have been disappointed not to get to comfort her," Catherine said, hugging Angie and winking to show she wasn't serious.
There was another bolt of lightning and clap of thunder that caused both kids to jump.
"That was closer," DJ said, and Steve squeezed his arm.
"You know when I was a kid, my dog Salty was very afraid of thunderstorms," Catherine said, hoping to distract them.
"What did he do?" DJ asked.
"He would bolt upright at the first thunderclap," Catherine said. "And then he would run to the couch by the front window of our house because he thought maybe he could see what it was. Poor thing would stand on the couch looking outside and shaking because he was so scared."
"Ohhh," Angie said. "Did you hug him?"
"I did," Catherine said and Angie smiled, snuggling closer. "I hugged him and whispered to him that I would keep him safe. Eventually he would settle and lay down with his head on my arm to keep me there. I wrapped us up together in a blanket and just kept talking to him quietly and telling him it would be okay." She smiled at the memory. "I even ran my nose over the top of his head over and over because I thought maybe that would seem like his mother soothing him."
"And he wasn't scared anymore?" DJ asked.
"I think he was still a little scared, but I think he knew I wouldn't let the storm hurt him."
DJ smiled softly, leaning more fully against Steve. "I think I know how he felt."
He and Angie jumped at the next thunderclap.
"Can we read the story?" Angie asked.
"Sure, honey," Catherine said, reaching over to her nightstand to pick up the book she'd stowed there when she saw there was going to be a storm.
Angie settled happily in for Stormy Night, a story about a little bear who was frightened of a thunderstorm and being reassured by his parents that their love would keep him safe.
Midway through the story, Angie fell asleep against Catherine who glanced at DJ to see if he wanted to keep reading.
"When you had Salty, were you scared of the thunderstorms, too?" he asked instead, voice quiet so as not to wake his sister.
Catherine thought for a moment. "You know, I think because I was so focused on making sure Salty felt comforted, I wasn't as scared myself."
She and Steve watched as DJ thought that through.
"So …" he finally said. "Knowing what causes thunder … and how far away the storm is helps to not be scared." He glanced up at Steve who nodded.
"Right."
DJ looked back at Catherine. "And … so does helping someone else not be scared …"
She smiled softly. "Sounds right up your alley, sweet boy."
DJ bit his lip, glancing over to where Cammie and Pumpkin were laying. "Maybe … maybe next time there's a storm, Pumpkin could come in my room and I could help her not be scared."
"I think that's a great idea," Catherine said, reaching over to run a hand over his hair.
As if she'd heard them, Cammie used her nose to nudge Pumpkin off her bed and over toward them. Steve leaned over to scoop the small cat up and placed her on the bed. She immediately crawled over to DJ, curling up in his lap.
"I don't think Pumpkin wants to wait until the next storm," Steve observed.
DJ smiled, nuzzling the back of her head and neck. "Can she sleep up here with us?" he asked hopefully.
Catherine and Steve exchanged an affectionate look.
"Of course, honey," Catherine said, carefully leaning over Angie to kiss his head.
Steve glanced over at Cammie who was waiting expectantly. He smiled and motioned toward the bed. "Come on, Cammie. You too."
The family, human and furry, settled under the covers as the storm eased. Steve looked over at Catherine once DJ had also fallen asleep.
"Bed's even fuller now," he said.
She smiled. "And we're still happy about it."
He nodded, leaning over for a kiss. "Until the next storm."
Catherine glanced down at DJ snuggled up with Pumpkin. "Maybe not."
"Will you miss it?" he asked.
"Absolutely," she said without hesitation.
He smiled. "Me, too," he said, then his expression stretched to a grin. "Except for maybe the tank top."
"You're not wearing a tank top," she said, brow furrowing.
He laid back on his now shared pillow, still smiling, and closed his eyes. "Wasn't talking about me."
She glanced down at the tank top she was wearing and rolled her eyes, fighting her own smile. "Until the next storm."
Hope you enjoyed!
Book: Stormy Night by Salina Yoon (Bloomsbury, 2015)
Note: Dedicated to my own sweet furry boy, in his forever home almost four weeks now. I still can't believe that in the last eight years I've gone from not being sure I could even write a dog character to having one of my own. We survived our first thunderstorm together and that inspired this story.
The first thunderstorm story referenced in this one was called Full Bed.
Find all our stories (in chronological order!) on our website: marirealmcroll dot wixsite dot com backslash real-mcroll
Or in the McRoll in the REAL World community here on fanfiction dot net
Find us on Tumblr: mcrollintherealworld dot tumblr dot com
You can still join our mailing list by emailing us realmcroll at yahoo dot com with Add me, please! in the subject line.
And find Mari on Twitter at Mari21763 and add #REALMcRoller